How to Voice Cast Efficiently.

SelectVO.com makes it easy to find the perfect voice for your project. Our interface is best-in-class, we’re always here if you need us, and key features give you the power to shape the project and share it with your team.

But, with a couple of tweaks to your approach when creating a casting project, the voice casting experience can be even more efficient.  If you don’t want to sort through thousands of auditions or answer a bunch of e-mails from talent agents, follow these steps to voice casting nirvana:

Write Detailed Talent Specifications

Don’t write a novel, but don’t say ‘40s, woman.’ Give the talent agents a concise description of the voice you’re looking for. This is generally broken down by:

• Gender/Gender Identity
• Age range the voice should represent
• Vocal range/texture (deep, gruff, squeaky)
• Style of voice (accent, energy level, emotion)

Include a Voice Reference

Along with detailed talent specifications, if you have an MP3 or YouTube link with the voice reference you’re looking for, include it! For projects that require a voice match, it’s imperative. But even for non-voice match projects, a voice reference will vastly improve the talent agents’ ability to ensure every submitted audition meets your specifications.

Be Specific with Rate Structure

If you’re casting a union job, this is pretty straightforward: write ‘scale’ under rate, put in usage and exclusivity details, and you’re good-to-go. If you’re casting a non-union job, it’s good practice to be more granular. If you just write “$1000” you’re going to get inquiries from talent agents.

We recommend this rate structure for non-union projects:

session fee + buyout terms + agent fee

Example: $350 session fee + $1000 for a 3-month buyout + 20% agent fee

If you follow that formula—and the rate is fair—you shouldn’t hear much from talent agents.

Limit Submissions Per Role

This is the big one. Unless you’ve only invited a handful of talent agencies to a project, you should always indicate how many auditions a talent agency should upload per role.  If you don’t, you will get inundated with auditions—we’ve seen projects with over a thousand auditions per role!

That’s hard on you and not fair to the talent agents and actors who participated in the project, because the vast majority of those auditions will go unheard.

Be particular! If you want one hundred auditions for an announcer role and you’ve invited ten talent agencies, limit submissions per role to ten. If you invite every talent agency to participate, make the submissions per role three. You’ll get plenty of great options and—as a bonus—force the talent agent to really think about who they should put in front of you. It’s a win-win that respects everyone’s time and effort.

Choose Role Names

When filling out a casting project, you have the option to enter the role names found in the script. We highly recommend you do this, even if it’s just an announcer. When you do, the talent agency MUST format their auditions according to these roles. This will create naming consistency across talent agencies and massively improve the ability to sort through and share the auditions with your team.

Consider the Talent Pool

SAG-AFTRA actors CANNOT work on non-union projects. However, non-union actors can be hired to work on union projects. A Producer who hires a non-union talent to work on a union job will complete a Taft Hartley Report to notify the Union of the hiring of a non-union performer. This is one of the ways actors become eligible to join SAG-AFTRA.  You can find the Taft Hartley form here.

If you have the budget and want to be able to explore all your options, casting union will allow you to audition both union and non-union actors and hire the best talent for your project. If you’ve never worked with SAG-AFTRA, they can provide you with an estimate of talent cost and help you cover your project with a simple One Production Only contract that can be processed in about an hour.

For more information, please contact: sue-anne.morrow@sagaftra.org.   

For Non-Union, Invite More Talent Agencies.

Most talent agencies now represent union and non-union actors, but some talent agencies are more particular about what non-union projects they’ll participate in—it usually comes down to the rate.

If you don’t have an existing relationship with the talent agencies you’re inviting to a project, hedge your bet and invite a few more talent agencies to ensure you get the auditions you need.

Simple Tweaks Can Save You a Lot of Time and Frustration.

Don’t rush filling out the casting sheet even if you need auditions ASAP. Think about the end result: How many total auditions do you want to listen to? How do you want the auditions to be organized? These questions and the above tips will go a long way toward making your voice casting experience on SelectVO.com as efficient as possible.

To set up a virtual demonstration for you, your team, or company, please contact us at help@selectvo.com.